Methods and compositions are presented to add a flavor to a food by incorporating the flavor into a lipid phase of the food by means of a fat substitute carrier. Adding flavor to the fat substitute carrier, in particular via volatilization, produces excellent characteristics with the least amount of added triglyceride. The invention is useful for adding flavor to both reduced fat and full fat foods.
Flavor is an elusive, complex, yet necessary component of foods. Flavors are volatile and non-volatile components which provide tastes, odors, and mouth sensations to edible food products. Flavors may be:
1. Natural to a particular food system in that they are generated in the routine process of manufacturing that food (such as a natural cheese flavor); PA1 2. A result of an process different from that in 1, a process where the flavor may be preformed, isolated and then added to a food (such as a spice flavor); PA1 3. Synthetic, formulated from simple base materials (such as inorganic salt flavors).
A category of food products for which flavor is particularly elusive, includes healthier food products characterized as "reduced fat," "low fat," or "fat free". Although these food products have been successfully manufactured, for many of these products flavor is unsatisfactory to consumers when compared to the flavor of the comparable product that contains fat at normal levels, that is, levels of "full fat" characteristic of a food. This is a particular problem for dairy products.
On the other hand, some of the most distinctive and popular flavors characterize cultured dairy products. Therefore, it is a challenge to produce reduced fat cultured dairy products that have a flavor equal to their full fat counterpart. Without flavor, these products are unacceptable to consumers, even though they may fulfill consumers' demand for healthier products.
Milk fat provides flavors preferred by consumers. Unfortunately, problems have arisen in attempts to preserve the milk fat flavors in dairy products designed to meet trends in consumers eating patterns based on health-conscious avoidance of high fat and/or high cholesterol foods. As pointed out in Chapman and Sharpe (1981), " . . . Cheddar cheese made from skim milk has no Cheddar flavor at all." The reason for this flavor loss is not clear.
Unfortunately, problems arise in making reduced fat food that is acceptable to consumers. One undesirable side effect of reducing fat, is that the flavor is not comparable to the flavor in the full fat counterpart of the food (designated herein as a "normal" flavor). If there is no direct, readily identifiable full fat food flavor counterpart, the flavor of the "new" reduced fat food is not found by consumers to be tasty.
For reduced fat products, a fat mimetic or substitute is added to the food. A preferred substitute is a polyol polyester.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,600,186, Mattson et al., relates sugar and sugar alcohol fatty acid polyesters as a low calorie replacement for normal triglyceride fat in food products.
Methods for preparing sugar and sugar alcohol fatty acid esters, and the composition of such esters are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,191,964, and 5,158,796, for example. An undesirable effect of liquid polyol fatty acid polyesters is to cause anal leakage. In an attempt to avoid this problem, U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,195 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,196 of Jandacek, disclose a method of adding anti-anal leakage agents to the liquid polyesters.
Other types of reduced caloric fat substitutes are available, as discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,964, col. 6; U.S. Pat. No. 3,164,477 (sucresters); U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,787 (homogenized cyclamate esters); U.S. Pat. No. 4,199,608 (an edible glycerol ester); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,992,293 (thioesters).
For example, flavor problems exist in foods prepared with a fat substitute that is a non-digestible fat, such as a polyol polyester, in particular, a sucrose polyester (SPE). For SPE-containing food, the perception of "normal" fatty flavors is reduced because they are not there, and there is a reduction in the overall perception of "normal" flavors, that is, flavors usually associated with the "full fat" food probably due to mouthcoating. Another problem making reduced fat products compare unfavorably to full fat foods is that polyol polyester fat substitutes suppress salt perception.
The causes for the reduction in flavor perception accompanying use of a fat substitute, are unknown. A possibility is that the flavor problems arise due to binding of the flavors more tightly by the fat substitute than binding of flavors by a normal fat triglyceride, thereby suppressing flavors. Another likely explanation for reduced flavor perception is that the flavor components are blockaded from reaching the surface of the mouth and tongue by the fat substitute which can coat the oral surfaces.
Another possible explanation for the flavor reduction associated with SPE is that the higher viscosity of SPE as compared to an analogous triglyceride fat, tends to reduce the rate at which flavors are able to diffuse through a matrix containing SPE. Therefore, the flavors are not distributed throughout SPE to be available for tasting.
Another common deficiency of reduced fat foods is the abnormal rate of flavor display upon consumption of the food. Often, the consumer perceives initially that the food has a sufficient level of flavor; however, the flavor tends to dissipate quickly after consumption of the food. A possible reason for this problem is that there is no flavor compartment to deliver the flavor to the consumer continuously over the time during which the food is consumed.
Recognizing the importance of flavor to the consumer, attempts have been made to improve the flavor of reduced fat, low fat, or fat free products, but there still remains a need for a simple, reproducible, relatively inexpensive method to create flavors that are acceptable to consumers, without defeating the purpose of manufacturing a healthy product.
Attempts to improve flavor in reduced fat foods have not been successful. One of the conventional methods of adding a flavor to a reduced fat food is to add the flavor to a water phase. This method does not produce optimum flavor in the food, possibly due to failure of the flavor to be absorbed through the mouth tissues. The mouth is likely to be coated by the fat substitute, so the flavor-containing water just washes through the mouth without encountering the taste buds. A possible solution to this problem is to load large amounts of flavor in the water phase to try to overcome the coating effect. However, this method is not able to overcome problems in flavor perception. Reduction in the overall perception of flavor level still characterizes reduced fat food prepared in this manner.
Another possible solution is to mix fat soluble flavors with fat and add the mixture to foods, but the amount of fat could then exceed FDA regulations for label descriptors such as "Light" or "Free," prohibiting marketing of the food under those designations. Fat based flavors that could be added to fat include oleo resin garlic.
The methods and compositions of the present invention address the need to produce lipid-containing foods that maintain a natural flavor, while reducing overall fat content. To accomplish this, flavors are incorporated into the fat substitute which acts as a carrier. These methods and compositions of the present invention are not limited to reduced fat foods, but may also enhance flavor in full fat foods.